Chancellor Carol Folt Says She Is Embracing Change

CHAPEL HILL – UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said that Carolina is moving forward from past scandals and embracing change through new leadership and policy adjustments.

“I’m very proud of Jim Dean, and Bubba Cunningham’s very deep into the institution look at how we are going to support our athletic students from recruitment all the way to graduation,” Folt said.

The three leaders formed the Student Athlete Academic Working Group in August. Dean, UNC’s top academic officer, said Wednesday to a Board of Trustees committee that the working group was not making just a “casual effort” to improve the connection between athletics and academics. He said that changes would be implemented this academic year.

Folt said that this attitude of “embracing change” is in part due to the new era of top leadership. Both she and Dean were named to their respective positions this summer. Bubba Cunningham is now two years into his role as Director of Athletics.

Folt laughingly told the Trustees Thursday that she had been at the helm of the University for 88 days and not a second of the time had been boring.

“That, too, is a gift when you come to a new place, people are always thinking about the future,” Folt said. “They aren’t sitting, thinking about what they did yesterday. They are anticipating what is needed to be strong and ready for tomorrow.”

Earlier this month, the Rawlings Panel issued a report on the role of athletics in campus life. It was commissioned by former UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp.

Along with the Student Athlete Academic Working Group and the Rawlings Report, efforts have been on-going across campus in examining athletic/academic relations. Folt said the Carolina will be announcing other, similar initiatives in the coming weeks.

Folt said that there are several other areas where UNC is making significant progress as well.

“I think that Carolina Counts, which of course predates me, is something that I’m proud of because it indicates that people are willing to rethink the way that we do business.”

Carolina Counts was a program that began in 2009 to help the University become more efficient. The projects completed so far have reduced recurring annual State costs by over $54 Million.

Folt said she is also satisfied with the work being done to rewrite UNC’s sexual assault policy, as well efforts to encourage entrepreneurship.

“The real Carolina story is about entrepreneurship and innovation,” Folt said. “Because that is a core value here, that already sets up people who don’t just embrace change, but want to live that.”

Folt took over as the University’s leader on July 1, replacing Thorp, who is now provost at Washington University in St. Louis. Folt previously served the interim president of Dartmouth College.

UNC Top Leaders Tackle Athletic/Academic Relations

CHAPEL HILL – In the wake of academic and athletic scandals, UNC is now in a unique position to turn negatives into positives and re-write the role of athletics in university life. Provost Jim Dean, UNC’s chief academic officer, in his first months in the position, said the process of examining academic support to student athletes has already begun.

Dean took over as UNC’s provost on July 1, replacing Bruce Carney, who returned to the faculty after four years in the position. Carney, and former Chancellor Holden Thorp, led the university through tumultuous times in the midst of an NCAA investigation of the University’s football program, that subsequently revealed “irregularities” in the African and Afro-American Studies Department.

“It is clear that there are some areas where we haven’t done as well as we should have, and so what we want to make sure is that we really have a very thorough, rigorous framework that we can use for everything that we are doing with student athletes,” Dean said.

UNC Provost Jim Dean

As former dean of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, Dean watched as Carolina’s senior leadership dealt with the blows of the scandals. He said the controversies have been reported “thoroughly,” and as a result there may have been a misconception about how wide-reaching the academic scandals were.

“If you added up all of the things that people have talked about over the past few years, in terms of the number of people that it has touched, it is actually a really small number of people,” Dean said. “Again, I will emphasize that there’s 800 or so student athletes, and we are talking about a relative handful. If we are talking about courses, it is the same thing. If you are talking about faculty, we are talking about really, really small numbers in a university that has 30,000 students and 3,000 professors.”

Dean said in a few short months, he has forged a strong relationship with Carolina’s new batch of leaders, including Chancellor Carol Folt and Bubba Cunningham, now two years into his role as Director of Athletics. Together, the three have already begun work as the Student Athlete Academic Working Group.

“I think it is natural that when you have that many new people, we will come in and look around and say we have inherited a wonderful university, certainly one of the top universities in the country, but there’s always more that you can do and ways to make things better,” he said. “I do think that some of the problems we’ve had have inspired us to dig a little deeper and try a little harder to make sure that we are doing everything we can to live up to the standards of the university.”

Other members include Michelle Brown, who joined the University last spring as Director of the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes, and Stephen Farmer, Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admissions. Dean said the group will also examine student athlete recruitment, admission and advising processes.

“It is important for me to say as Provost, I have a responsibility for the academic lives of all students, including all student athletes,” Dean said. “I am working closely with Bubba Cunningham as the Athletic Director, who has responsibility for the student athletes as athletes, and we have a great partnership that we are using to work together.”

Dean said the working group aims to build on recent progress made across campus in strengthening relationships between academics and athletics. Examples include the ongoing work of the Faculty Council’s Faculty Athletics Committee; the reorganization of and new leadership for the Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes, which now reports to Dean’s office; and the implementation of the new strategic plan in the athletics department, according to UNC’s website.

In a large scale operation such as UNC, Dean said it is impossible to control every aspect, but examining current processes is a starting place for improvement.

“Whenever you are dealing with people, you can’t really make any guarantees in any sphere of life. But really all well-run organizations have a way that they do things.”

In April, work also began on a college athletics round table discussion commissioned by Holden Thorp and led by Hunter Rawlings, President of the Association of American Universities. UNC asked the panel to make recommendations about the role of athletics in the life of a university, taking into account the recent challenges the university has faced. In ongoing discussions, the panel is covering the NCAA, presidential control, amateurism, the current context of the model for college athletics, and the role of faculty.

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